Democratizing Surgical Success

SLA printers, which began life as high-end industrial machines operated by trained technicians, were once prohibitively expensive. Even today, dental labs or practices investing in them could pay upwards of $25,000 to $50,000 for a single machine. Materials for these printers can also be expensive, with items such as surgical guides costing around $50 to $100 just for the materials alone. The latest SLA desktop printers are now affordable, generally costing around $3,500. With materials factored in, surgical guides can be printed for as little as $21 to $30. For dentists who routinely perform implants, the investment in a printer can be recouped in as few as 20 surgeries. Dentists who have already incorporated 3-D printing into their workflow have found the process of making a surgical guide simple and straightforward. Dr. Michael Scherer, a prosthodontist at Sonora Modern Dentistry who uses a desktop 3-D printer to create his own surgical guides, says, “Before, I used to have to send [a surgical guide design] out to the laboratory, wait 2 to 3 weeks, and pay hundreds of dollars dental vacuum forming machine. Now, I can print out a model in about an hour.” To make a surgical guide, dentists start by using a CBCT scanner, an intraoral scanner, and modeling software to produce a scan of a patient’s teeth. The digital model is then exported to the printer. Some printers come with their own software that will instantly prepare the model for printing. Once the printer has calibrated itself, the model is ready to print. Just a few hours later, the surgical guide has been printed. What’s more, because of the low cost to print, dentists can opt to print several slightly different models so they have added options during surgery. Dr. Scherer, for example, says part of his pre-surgery planning is practicing the operation with the guide he has printed. Proper use of surgical guides has been shown to improve clinical outcomes in dental implant surgeries. Without guides, dentists perform the surgery freehand, which can result in the implants being placed on average 2.0 to 2 micro motor.5 mm away from where the dentists were planning on placing them. What’s more, the surgery tends to take much more time and be more invasive. Dentists performing freehand must often cut flaps into the patient’s gum to allow them to see the bone beneath. Guides mean that surgeries can be flapless, which helps reduce the risk of post-operative swelling. Implanting Business Growth For smaller dental practices, desktop 3-D printing can help grow the business. Each year, American dentists place nearly 9 million implants into patients, with that number steadily increasing. According to the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID), the dental implant and prosthetic market is projected to reach $6.8 billion by 2018 as more Americans opt for implants rather than bridges or crowns for missing teeth. There is an especially strong demand from the aging baby boomers, who want an aesthetic and functionally superior alternative to bridges and crowns. The AAID puts the annual growth of patients opting for implants at just under 20%. Smaller dental practices will find that desktop 3-D printing, along with CT scanning, will allow them to tap into these patients’ growing preference for implants, while giving them the ability to perform safe, accurate surgeries with better clinical outcomes. Headaches? for more information.